


Chosen

by Carmarthen Juvenilia (Carmarthen)



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Community: skywalkathon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-11
Updated: 2011-04-11
Packaged: 2017-10-17 22:35:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/182008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmarthen/pseuds/Carmarthen%20Juvenilia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anakin doesn't want his children to be slaves. Written for Treena in the 2008 Skywalkathon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chosen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Treena](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Treena).



> The prompt was "What exactly went through Anakin's head when Padme broke the news she was pregnant? Needs to be more than two words". I really struggled with this story, since I fundamentally don't get pre-Vader Anakin; someday I'd like to explore Vader's relationship with the clonetroopers more, but this is not that day.

Anakin felt guilty about it, even years later when Anakin Skywalker was but a glimmer and a memory in the shadowed soul of Darth Vader.

His only thought when Padmé told him she was pregnant was an utter terror of the Jedi taking his child. He knew they didn't take children whose parents objected, knew it with his mind. The terror was completely irrational. Obi-Wan would have give him that gentle, quizzical raised eyebrow and told him to stop being foolish: he was having a child. Rejoice!

Well, Obi-Wan would probably have given him a deeply disappointed look and reported him--with heavy heart--to the Council. It was one thing to turn a blind eye to his former padawan's secret marriage; another to children.

That was why he didn't tell Obi-Wan. It wasn't as if Obi-Wan told _him_ everything. No one had told Anakin when he was a boy that being a Jedi meant never loving openly, never having a family.

They'd told him he'd learn to fly a ship and use the Force and wield a lightsabre. They told him he'd protect people. They told him he was the Chosen One. It was all true, from a certain point of view. Obi-Wan's damned "certain point of view." Over the years Anakin had come to realize that was a fancy name for lying.

Then a fierce wave of protectiveness had overwhelmed him; he'd _never_ let the Jedi take _his_ child. His child, his and Padmé's. He should rejoice. He smiled at Padmé and took her hands. "That is wonderful, Padmé. We're going to be happy."

She stared up at him, eyes wide. "What will we do? You know the Queen will dismiss me, and you--"

He pressed a finger to her lips. "We'll be together, all three of us. We will.”

He would not let his children be slaves. He would not let the Jedi take them.

* * *

Darth Vader, the second most feared man in the galaxy, was a slave.

At first he had convinced himself otherwise, that the Sith was the way to freedom. And then Padmé had died and he'd realized his place. He was Palpatine's broken tool, inadequately prepared. The kindly mentor of his youth was, if not quite a lie, assuredly not often in evidence.

He thought, occasionally, of a boy he once knew, a slave who dreamed of the stars. As the Empire began replacing the clone troopers with ordinary soldiers, Vader requested that the remaining clone troopers be transferred to the 501st, his own legion. He gave Tarkin a military reason, but privately, he felt comfortable with the clone troopers. They did not fear him unduly, and he had no wish to see them mishandled by an officer who did not understand their nature.

Vader did not like to think of why he understood the clone troopers so well.

For years after the fall of the Jedi Temple, Vader had nightmares--not about killing the Jedi younglings, for he still felt he'd spared them from a worse fate--but about a child with Padmé's eyes among them, sometimes a girl and sometimes a boy.

But his children were dead. The Jedi would not have them.

It was small comfort.

* * *

_From a certain point of view!_ No doubt that was how Obi-Wan had convinced Luke that Vader had killed his father.

Vader paced, trying to rein in his fury. For once, he wished he could simply release it, but the last time he'd done so had destroyed an extremely expensive experimental starship. Palpatine had been unamused.

The Sith, it turned out, were as enthused about control as the damned Jedi. The damned Jedi who'd somehow escaped death and survived to poison his son against him.

Old nightmares made real. Vader waved the door to his quarters open and headed down to the training level. At least he could destroy droids instead of meditating on his flaws, as the cursed Jedi preferred.

* * *

Luke was confident and smiling, talking to his sister and her pilot. Anakin couldn't help but smile with pride and joy.

"The galaxy has changed, my friends," Obi-Wan's spirit murmured next to him.

"Changed too, the Jedi have. A different path than yours, young Luke will walk," Yoda said, looking up at Anakin with a sly expression.

"Good," Anakin said, folding his hands into the sleeves of his robe. For the first time in his life he felt the serenity that had always eluded him. Luke and Leia were free, and children to make any father proud. What more could he ask for?

"Time to go, Anakin," Obi-Wan said, and laid a hand on Anakin's shoulder.

He nodded. He was ready now.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Chosen [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/395638) by [tinypinkmouse_podfic (tinypinkmouse)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinypinkmouse/pseuds/tinypinkmouse_podfic)




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